Best Base Building Games on PC, Hut to Factory
A base in a survival game keeps you alive, a base in a factory game makes things, and a base in a colony game is where other people live. That one question sorts the genre better than any ranking. Valheim and Enshrouded for the first, Satisfactory for the second, RimWorld for the third are where we would start, and below are twelve games across all three, each with the part that turns building into hauling.
Takeaways Base building games, by what the base is for
- To survive Valheim, Enshrouded, Sons Of The Forest, Grounded 2, 7 Days to Die, ICARUS. Walls first, then everything else.
- To produce Satisfactory, Captain of Industry, The Planet Crafter. The base is a machine, and the machine always wants more input.
- To house people RimWorld, Medieval Dynasty, Palworld. Someone else lives in what you build, and they have opinions.
Bases that keep you alive
Six of the twelve games here are survival games first. The base is a wall between you and the night, and everything you build answers a threat.
Valheim is the Viking afterlife and the cleanest example of the type. A longhouse needs a roof, a fire and a chimney gap, or the smoke drives you out, and every biome asks for a better material than the last. Stamina pays for chopping, running and swimming alike. Enshrouded has the most generous building system of the group, voxel-based and free in shape, and puts its best materials inside a fog that kills you on a timer. Sons Of The Forest builds log by log on an island where the locals visit on their own schedule; its trainer has 15 free cheats, the most of any game here. Grounded 2 shrinks you to insect size, so a grass plank is a load and the lawn is a map. 7 Days to Die is the one where the base gets tested on a schedule: every seventh night a horde comes, finished walls or not. ICARUS gives each drop a time limit, so a base there is something you build to survive one mission, not to keep.
Where they grind: carrying. Every base in this group is limited by how much one person can haul before a meter runs out.
Bases that produce
Here the base is a machine. Nobody attacks it much; the enemy is throughput.
Satisfactory starts with one smelter and ends with conveyor belts across a continent. The loop is honest: you need more iron to build what gives you more iron, and between them you walk. Captain of Industry adds the consequences: waste needs a landfill, exhaust poisons the air, runoff poisons the water, and the settlement notices all three. The Planet Crafter is a factory with one goal, a rising terraformation index, built while your own oxygen runs down.
Where they grind: the ratio. One input short and a whole line idles, and the fix is another trip to a resource node across the map.
Bases that house people
The third kind is a settlement. You build it, and someone else lives in it.
RimWorld is the colony that fails slowly and interestingly: a sickness, a late harvest, a raid that takes the doctor. It is the most replayable game on this list, and its trainer is generous, 13 of 29 cheats free, godmode included. Medieval Dynasty starts with one person and grows into a village with families, where you build every house by hand and the seasons do not wait for the barn. Palworld puts a survival base and a creature collector on top of each other, and the creatures do the work at a speed the game decides.
Where they grind: time. A colony or village runs on the calendar, and the calendar is slow when you are waiting for one building to finish.
Twelve games side by side
| Game | Base is for | Pressure | Trainer cheats (free) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Valheim | Survival | Biomes, bosses, stamina | 20 (6) |
| Enshrouded | Survival | The shroud timer | 29 (10) |
| Sons Of The Forest | Survival | Island locals, four meters | 42 (15) |
| Grounded 2 | Survival | Insects, four meters | 37 (8) |
| 7 Days to Die | Survival | A horde every seventh night | 25 (4) |
| ICARUS | Survival | A timer on every drop | 35 (7) |
| Satisfactory | Production | Throughput, distance | 13 (2) |
| Captain of Industry | Production | Pollution, fuel, water | 17 (2) |
| The Planet Crafter | Production | Oxygen while you build | 17 (3) |
| RimWorld | Colony | Events, raids, hunger | 29 (13) |
| Medieval Dynasty | Colony | Seasons, aging | 41 (6) |
| Palworld | Survival and colony | Work speed, capture rate | 54 (10) |
Steam’s Base Building tag is the wide version of this list, with hundreds of games. This one is narrow on purpose: every game here has its own trainer page, so the part that grinds can be switched off for the evening you want to build instead of haul.
Where cheats help, and where they spoil it
Base building is the genre where a cheat most easily removes the point. A base you did not gather for is a set piece, not an achievement. The cheats that fit are the ones that remove the hauling and keep the building: unlimited carry weight, a full stamina bar, faster crafting, a longer day. Free building costs and infinite resources are better kept for the late game, when the plan is clear and the gathering has stopped teaching you anything. Several of these games have co-op; with a friend in the world, all of it stays off. If you want the same feeling with more time pressure, the Total War campaigns and the single-player list are the next step out.
Infographic Base building games, by what the base is for Click to enlarge What are the best base building games on PC?
For survival bases: Valheim, Enshrouded and Sons Of The Forest. For factories: Satisfactory and Captain of Industry. For colonies: RimWorld and Medieval Dynasty. Palworld mixes a survival base with a creature workforce.
Which base building games can you play alone?
All twelve on this list. Several have co-op, Valheim, Enshrouded, Grounded 2 and Palworld among them, but every one runs as a full single-player game.
What is the most relaxed base building game?
The Planet Crafter has the gentlest pressure: oxygen, water and food, but no raids and no hordes. You build at your own pace while the planet slowly turns green.
Do base building games have cheats?
Several have a built-in route. Valheim and 7 Days to Die have consoles, Satisfactory has Advanced Game Settings, RimWorld has development mode. For the others, a trainer covers resources, building costs and survival meters.